1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a vehicle pillar structure that includes a buckling portion.
2. Description of the Related Art
A known technology in this technical field is described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-7949 (JP-A-2005-7949). A center pillar described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-7949 (JP-A-2005-7949) is provided with a reinforcement made of metal, and the reinforcement is provided with a recessed buckling portion that serves as a starting point of buckling. Therefore, when external force acts on the center pillar, the center pillar starts buckling at the buckling portion, and the metal reinforcement undergoes an extending deformation, whereby energy of the external force may be absorbed.
However, in the conventional pillar structure described above, although the reinforcement is provided with the buckling portion in order to control the buckling deformation of the pillar, the strain that occurs at the buckling portion of the reinforcement is large, so that an ideal deformation mode of the pillar cannot be obtained.
In addition, because the strain that occurs at the buckling portion is large, it may be difficult to control the deformation mode of the pillar, such as when the reinforcement is formed from a high-tensile steel with low extensibility.